Pinata Man

Ivan Hernandez must have the best job in Los Angeles: he makes pinatas to the delight and amazement of the customers who come to the family business in Los Angeles. I had to ask him a few questions.

What’s your name? Where you from? What is something most people would never guess about you?Horacio Ivan Hernandez but I mostly just go by Ivan. I am from South Los Angeles or South Central, and the biggest shock for people is when I tell them I make pinatas.

2. What made you get into the pinata and how did you get started? I’ve been making pinatas since I was a kid. My mom is a piñata maker. I started out assisting her with decorating pinatas. Then in high school, I started to learn how to make the frames, the cardboard bodies. My first pinata was a Sponge Bob.

3. What is your favorite thing about pinatas? My favorite thing about making pinatas is the challenge of making custom pinatas and actually making a replica of the request such that the customers love it so much that they don’t even want to break it.

Also, the smile on the customers’ faces.

4. What is the most challenging thing about your business? Well, a lot of people think that our business is a mass production company. What they don’t know, is that the business is crafted by just me and my mom. We get a lot of short notice and mass requests which makes it challenging to get them out on time.

5. What inspires your creations? The art of making the custom pinatas and the customer’s ideas.

6. Do you have a favorite pinata that you have made? Out of all of the pinatas, I would have to say, the set of four that I made for a couple that was getting married. It was the couple and their two cats. They came out, I feel that they are the most realistic and detailed I have created so far.

7. Have you ever hated a project or one of your creations and why? Yes, I made multiple pinatas that made me feel dissatisfied with the finishing product because they didn’t come out the way I wanted them to.

8. What is the strangest request you have ever gotten for a pinata? The erotic pinatas. People ask for the wildest things.

9. If your pinatas could come to life and party with you, what three pinatas would you want to party with? Popeye, The Rich Pig, and Pinky, from Pinky and the Brain.

10. How can people order pinatas from you? People can contact me via Instagram @thepinatahouse or on Yelp by searching, The Piñata House.